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Origin demonstrates Smart City Suite to Odessa council as staff seek transparency after billing problems
Summary
Origin, the recommended vendor, demonstrated a white‑labeled Smart City Suite for Odessa’s utility billing, customer portal and integrations with the city’s AMI meters; council probed data conversion, testing demands on staff and how the portal could restore public trust.
City staff presented Origin as the recommended vendor for Odessa’s new utility billing, customer service and meter‑reading system during the Dec. 9 work session, and Origin’s leadership demonstrated the product and answered council questions.
Joanne introduced the procurement recommendation and Origin representatives explained the Smart City Suite — a customer information system built on Oracle, a citizen portal, integrations with AMI and various back‑office modules. Origin’s Mark Black (CEO) said the product emphasizes service, integration and post‑go‑live support, and the company proposed a roughly 12‑month implementation from approval to go‑live (targeting January 2027 if approved in January).
Council members asked technical and operational questions: whether the new system requires replacing meters (Origin: no), how the platform integrates with the city’s Master Meter AMI head‑end (Origin: past integrations exist; data conversion will start early), and who will lead user‑acceptance testing (Origin: vendor will supply test scripts, supervise cycles and stagger testing to limit staff time). Origin emphasized they can begin some conversion work before contract start to reduce implementation risk.
Several council members and the mayor raised trust concerns given past billing errors. Origin proposed a white‑labeled citizen portal that displays near‑real‑time AMI usage (down to five‑minute intervals when available), leak alerts, historical consumption, payment and reconciliation features, and configurable notification severity for customers and staff. Origin suggested involving citizens in a review or pilot to demonstrate transparency before full cutover.
No formal award vote was recorded in the work session transcript; this meeting served as the vendor presentation and Q&A. Staff said they will pursue procurement steps and return with a recommendation for council action at a later meeting.
What’s next: staff will continue procurement steps, schedule demonstrations as requested and return to council for contract authorization and a potential implementation timeline.
